When we’re busy with business-as-usual, it’s tempting to bury our heads in the sand. That’s how business continuity and disaster recovery planning get hidden at the bottom of the to-do list. But behaving like an ostrich is risky business. The increase in extreme weather, power outages and cybercrime are just some of the trends causing enormous problems for organisations across the UK.

You can’t ignore it disaster recovery planning. To make the task easier, here are 10 essential – yet simple – questions about disaster recovery planning that every business and IT manager must ask.

Don’t be a disaster recovery ostrich

Ask yourself – or your team – the following questions:

A recent survey has revealed a large percentage of SMBs feel vulnerable to cyber-attack. It’s important to ask yourself: what is your business is doing to protect itself against faceless hackers? For those of you who may have already fallen victim to a cyber-attack, I am sure you will agree, prevention is better than a cure.

“71% of SMBs recently surveyed feel vulnerable to a cyber-attack”

– (Microsoft, 2018).

Microsoft recently announced additional security enhancements to Microsoft 365, so you can be sure your business has a strong defence against cyber-attacks. Microsoft 365, in a nutshell, combines all the collaboration tools of Office 365 with enhanced security. It’s an affordable, solution for enabling workplace modernisation and safeguarding your business against the cyber criminals of the world.

So, what prevention strategies do the new Microsoft 365 updates have in store?

Employee protection against phishing and ransomware

Cybercriminals favour phishing and ransomware to encourage employees to unwittingly give out sensitive information. The results are catastrophic for SMBs, from a loss of customer trust to financial turmoil. You only need to look at the WannaCry ransomware attack to realise that prevention is your best bet.

Microsoft 365’s security updates work to prevent phishing and ransomware attacks through:

• Sophisticated attachment scanning and AI-powered analysis to detect and discard dangerous messages;
• Automatic link checks in emails, quickly assessing if they’re part of a phishing scheme to prevent employees accessing unsafe websites;
• Device protection to prevent devices from interacting with ransomware and other malicious web locations.

Prevent the unintentional leak of sensitive business data

Most SMBs handle sensitive information. Over half collect and store National Security Numbers and 29% handle bank account details (Microsoft, 2018). The real challenge for SMBs like yours is, how to prevent the leakage of this sensitive data.

The new security features of Microsoft 365 rise to this challenge by:

• Providing policies to prevent data loss by identifying, monitoring, and protecting sensitive information like National Security Numbers and credit card numbers;
• Empowering employees to access manage emails in Outlook, to protect sensitive information;
• Email archiving and preservation policies to help ensure data is properly retained through continuous data backup and compliance;
• BitLocker device encryption on all Windows devices to help protect against data theft or exposure if a protected device is lost or stolen.

All the updates contribute to comprehensive protection in a single subscription that will help to prevent cyber-attacks on your business.

For more information about why Microsoft 365 is the complete solution for Workplace Modernisation, security and device management for your SMB book a FREE consultation.

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The only constant is change, so said Greek philosopher Heraclitus, which is true of the ever-growing team here at Cloud Direct. This month we’re excited to welcome Kay Gilbert into the fold. With glowing experience in the retail & hospitality industries in sales & marketing, doubling year-on-year Christmas sales in her previous role, Kay will mostly be managing our key accounts in these markets.

What attracted you to Cloud Direct?

Kay: Having sold new technology into retail and hospitality companies for many years, I’d become very focussed on lead generating and wanted to get back into account management. So, I spent the last 2 years learning a lot about the hard face of retail as National Account Manager at greeting cards company, Ling Design. But I missed the tech industry and was ready for a new challenge.

I knew Brett (Cloud Direct CEO) through mutual friends and started to learn more about what he was doing at Cloud Direct. I was immediately impressed by the energy and ethos at Cloud Direct and I could see Brett was running the company in such a cool way.

You have a wealth of experience in the retail industry, where did it all start?

Kay: Well, I started my retail career folding jumpers in Primark as a Saturday girl, back when it was terminally un-cool. But post university I worked in retail digital shelf space management during the very early days. Back then, using digital images of products for planograms for the first time was transforming trade marketing and the way in which suppliers could partner with retailers.

The company had been acquired by Nielsen and grew fast; I travelled a lot as Marketing Co-ordinator for 18 international offices and gained an understanding of international retail.

Why did you move from marketing to sales?

Kay: After working in marketing for years and being told disparagingly by a colleague “What do you know about sales?”. I realised I didn’t know much, which made me hungry to develop my career more into sales.

I was tempted away by an exciting opportunity in a new fast-growing tech company as a sales person. I worked mostly from the office because the technology they had was so innovative that new prospects would happily travel to see us. It was a revolutionary type of lossy image compression based on fractal mathematics. In the days when you could only fit one image on a floppy disc, this tech allowed you to fit a hundred and it was used to compress the images on Microsoft Encarta.

What prompted you to set up your own consultancy?

Kay: I took a career break to have children and consultancy work could fit around looking after my three kids.

I set up Kick-start Sales to help tech companies grow their customer base through targeted telesales and networking. I worked with a range of clients such as a local company using big data analysis for growing e-commerce; a US based research company delivering actionable insights on consumer behaviour to the retail industry, and an e-learning company specialising in the retail & hospitality industries.

Enough about business. How do you spend your time outside of work?

Kay: I love tennis and play as much as I can. Sport is a passion that my children have picked up, all of whom played county sports and my son has gone on to earn a scholarship as a college athlete tennis player in North Carolina.

When I’m not playing I’m watching tennis. I was there when Andy won Wimbledon both times, when he became world No. 1 at the O2 and when GB won the Davis Cup in Ghent.

What will you be doing at Cloud Direct?

Kay: In my role as Key Account Manager, I’ll be mostly looking after our hospitality and retail clients, which is a change in strategy for the business. Cloud Direct is making an investment in the relationship with their existing customers and they saw a real mutual benefit in having an account manager with the expertise in their vertical industries.

Right now, I’m really enjoying upskilling in all things to do with Microsoft Cloud technology. I’m excited to meet the most ambitious IT Directors and teams at forward-thinking hospitality and retail companies looking to get ahead by doing something different and disruptive with this new tech. I’ll be based in the Bath office but I’m happy being out and about. I want to be on the road travelling, meeting new clients as much as possible; gaining a deeper understanding of what they are trying to achieve, so that I can help them to maximise the return on their investment and profit from the expertise within our team here.

90 percent of companies have experienced business IT downtime, and half of enterprise employees report losing access to critical data during outages. Although this sounds scary, disaster-proofing your business isn’t as difficult as it might seem. By deploying a range of cloud-ready tools, you can ensure your team are always online and productive. Even when severe weather conditions or transport strikes mean they’re stuck working from home.

Here are the top three ways to disaster-proof your business IT so you can focus on what matters most: growth.

1. Mitigating a downtime disaster

In 2015, Microsoft reported only 10 hours of downtime, down from 39 hours the year before. In fact, in their SLA for virtual machines, they guarantee external connectivity at least 99.95 percent of the time.

This decreased downtime is a step forward for cloud computing, but how can you make it work in your business?

In 2016, Citrix and Azure teamed up to bring cloud users access to remote desktops. Because virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is hosted on the server and not the computer, it means that if your business experiences an outage like hardware failure, you can locate another machine and load up your desktop as if you were stationed at your own. Same software subscriptions, same applications.

Of course, there are many causes of business IT downtime. Hardware failures are one such case. But Citrix VDI benefits from Azure’s state-of-the-art cloud backup features including geo-replication and failover groups. So, if in the unfortunate event a server goes down, you’ll still have access to up to four readable secondary databases in the same or different data centre locations.

 

 

2. Compliance at every turn

25th May 2018 marks the first day of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and every business must be data compliant. If you’re not, your business can be fined up to four percent of annual global turnover or €20 million (whichever is greater). But if you’re partnering with a cloud vendor like Microsoft Azure, data compliance is built into the tools you use.

Every VDI application and desktop is built from the ground up with compliance, transparency and trustworthiness in mind. Backed by Azure’s trust centre, VDI is shrouded in a matrix of proactive security measures including Active Directory, Enterprise Mobility and multi-factor authentication, all of which are fully compliant and let you manage the safety of your data straight from the source.

3. Lost or stolen devices

More than half of millennial workers want a flexible or alternative working schedule. That means working away from the office during hours that suit them. Prior to cloud development, this would have posed a serious risk to business security. Today, however, this isn’t the case.

VDI gives you full control over your devices straight from the Azure portal. Lock and shut down lost devices using Enterprise Mobility, for example, and keep important company data safe. Other tools like Azure’s Intune comes with enterprise-level mobile security, too, which lets you keep up-to-date on work when your laptop is out of sight.

Stay productive, stay secure

As disastrous as downtime, non-compliance and lost devices can be, cloud computing ensures that your data stays in your hands, and your hands only.

By 2020, half of the UK workforce will be working remotely. Virtual desktops, then, are your ticket to continual business growth. By giving your employees the freedom to work from any location and on any device (while remaining secure), your business can become disaster-proof, meaning you can continue onwards, night and day.

 

 

It’s no secret we love hedgehogs. Our logo, Eric the hedgehog, was derived from the hedgehog concept. Eric represents that we are good at delivering one big thing, digital transformation through cloud technology. Equivalent to rolling up into a ball, if there are any hedgehogs reading this.

“The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is best of all”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This week we’re supporting hedgehog awareness week, by sharing 10 more reasons why we think hedgehogs are wonderful creatures!

Technology is marching on. As new working practices shape the business world, few things are as important as data centre modernisation. IT is about more than keeping the lights on – it’s an opportunity for innovation and evolution. Your business can’t step into the future if your technology ties it to the past.

‘By 2020, 67 percent of enterprise IT infrastructure and software will be for cloud-based offerings,’ according to ICD Directions 2017 

Lack of business buy-in can block IT innovation. Your IT department knows the advantages but the rest of the business wants ROI and IT KPIs. It makes sense; to prove a case, you need evidence.

Here are five IT KPIs that every business needs to monitor, and why it’s important to measure them.

1. Uptime

Uptime is the total length of time a service is operational. If you fail to measure it, you fail to understand the true effects of downtime. It’s normal for some downtime to occur, but if you’re constantly unplugged and offline, it’s likely that your technology is struggling to keep up.

What does this mean for your business? Well, downtime is equal to customer dissatisfaction, increased labour costs and potentially lost data. If it happens during mission-critical periods, the backlash is even greater.

2. Response time

How long does it take for your technology to complete a query? If a human can respond quicker, you need to upgrade your systems. As with uptime, disruptions cause delays in response time and create inefficiencies. What this means for you in long-term: fewer closed deals and smaller steps forward.

 

 

3. Resolved support requests

Track. Report. Adjust. Repeat.

First, use your technology to track the number of support requests received. If this number starts to increase, your technology isn’t working hard enough. Second, measure the time taken to resolve these requests.

We can all agree that it doesn’t make good business sense to have your employees twiddling their thumbs while they wait for technical issues to be resolved. After all, time is money, right?

4. Security events

No business is immune to security threats. Yes, not even yours.

If your business is struggling to be reactive, let alone proactive, it’s likely that your infrastructure is not secure. Make sure to monitor security events that your business encounters. How long does it take to deal with them? With this information, you’ll be able to identify the breaking point and take preventative action.

This is one KPI that will light a fire under the business decision-makers. Security events are the wake-up call many CEOs need. Every cloud…

5. Server and infrastructure management cost

From the cost of replacement parts to internal IT labour expenses, prices are always changing. Unsurprisingly, the cost of managing your servers and infrastructure will rise as your business grows, but if these costs are increasing exponentially, you might want to sound the alarm.

A lot of C-level executives view these rising costs as ‘part and parcel’ of running a business. But for more efficiency and reliability, invest the time in researching cheaper alternatives.

How do you monitor all of this?

Of course, knowing what IT KPIs to track is one thing. Knowing how to track them is another story. First, you need the right tools. Software like Microsoft’s Power BI is a suite of analytics tools that not only help you monitor your KPIs but also obtain actionable insight from them.

Second, you need the expertise. There’s a lot you can do internally to keep your business ahead of the game. That said, it’s much easier, more efficient and cost-effective to get third-party help. By working with an IT partner, you can draw on extensive resources and experience to really drive your IT to the next level.

Data centre modernisation for all

Soon, data centre modernisation will be more than just a plan for the future; it will be a necessity for all businesses that want to stay in the game. Knowing the right IT KPIs means you can identify the best time to build a business case and convince the board.

A plan without numbers is just a story; numbers without a plan – well, those emails won’t get opened. Create a strategy. Have a timeline. Book that meeting. Business innovation is more than just a side project, so step up and be the leader within your business that pushes for change.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone. Time-poor IT professionals can seek the help of an outsourced IT partner to guide and manage the data centre modernisation journey from start to finish. For more information on how your business can build the foundations of digital transformation, get in touch with us today.

 

 

Males in high-tech companies earn, on average, 25 percent more than women. Three-quarters of mid-level professional roles are male and only 13 percent of executives are female. Though the junior-level roles are more equally split, the lack of women in executive positions shows that there is a lack of progression for talented women in technology.

The gender pay gap is not an issue we can solve overnight. But you can help to change it, and here’s how.

The cloud enables flexible working

Almost half of mothers reduce their working hours to make time for their family. Another 51 percent of women say that being a working mother hinders their career progression, while only 16 percent of working fathers feel the same way.

The cloud has long since made remote and flexible working a reality, and the possibilities are still increasing. Office 365, for example, comes with communication software to keep remote employees connected and collaboration tools to enable co-authoring of documents from separate locations.

 

 

On top of this, having a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), such as Azure Citrix VDI, means that a user’s desktop is hosted on a server rather than locally. With this, replicating an employee’s ‘office’ set up is simple. No matter the device or its location, employees can still access all the software and applications they use in the office.

This is freedom that has never existed before. And it’s opening up a massive opportunity for employees who struggle to make a full-time office position work for them. More than three-quarters of women surveyed by professional recruiter Robert Walters said that remote working opportunities were a top priority for women in technology. It is now a necessity for any business that wants to retain long-term staff.

The cloud supports digital fluency

According to Accenture’s ‘Get Equal in 2017’ report, there are three skills that form part of the solution to bridge the gender pay gap:

• Digital fluency – the ability to use digital technology to communicate, work and develop further skills.
• Career strategy – the ability to set high, but achievable, goals and make informed decisions regarding their career.
• Tech immersion – the ability to further develop technical skills as quickly as men.

Combining the above skills has the potential to reduce the wage gap by 35 percent by 2030. The cloud can facilitate this.

What’s good for women is good for business

Companies may be wondering what impact these necessary changes might have on their bottom-line. The reality is that most of them are good for business, not just the women working there.

• Three-quarters of millennials claim that remote working has a positive impact on productivity.
• 57 percent of businesses  achieved their goal of increasing speed of access to technology without difficulty when migrating to the cloud.
• 86 percent of businesses cite increasing infrastructure flexibility and agility as a key benefit of adopting cloud computing.
  Women make up half of the global population. They are as much an asset to any business as their male counterparts and it’s time their pay matched that. When businesses take steps to bridge the gender pay gap, they also show that they are one of the few committed to equality and innovation.

“Cloud Direct is passionate about attracting and supporting Women-in-Tech and we’re in talks with Microsoft to develop an engagement program,” says Brett Raynes, CEO at Cloud Direct. “The tech industry needs a rebrand. That’s why we’re launching our career academy focussed on attracting people with transferable skills not just technical know-how. The IT industry is crying out for talent but currently there are far too few women in tech roles. We haven’t found the answer yet but affirmative action, like our academy, will help in the short term.”

So, what can your business do today to make a fairer future for women?

 

 

In today’s digital workplace, data is your most important asset, and you need to understand how you can make the most out of your IT. But what you need to know can vary. Whether you’re prioritising the security of your day-to-day IT operations, or you’re ready for rapid growth, if you can trust your CIO, you don’t necessarily need to know everything about your IT.

But in an age of data-driven decision making, there are key elements of your IT you need to understand. Here are the 7 key questions to ask your CIO today.

1. How responsive are we to downtime?

IT downtime is estimated to cost UK businesses £2 billion a year. With new threats emerging every day, keeping a proactive cybersecurity mindset is key. But cyber threats are just one cause of downtime. Server outages, hardware failures and human error are just as likely to cause downtime.

Ask your CIO how you protect the business against IT downtime and review your approach regularly. Microsoft Azure users, for example, benefit from geo-replication and failover groups.

2. Is our data secure? If so, how?

Your CIO should understand the comprehensive security measures in place to protect your sensitive information. In an age of increasing threat and dependence on technology, secure data is essential.

Investors, prospective clients and customers are now aware of the data risks. You need to be able to answer questions about cybersecurity without referring to the handbook.

3. Are we GDPR compliant?

On  25th May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect. Businesses that are non-compliant could face fines of up to four percent of their global turnover or €20 million (whichever is greater).

As a business leader, it’s up to you to ensure your business is GDPR compliant. Ask your CIO what your current compliance is and, given the severity of non-compliance, do what you can  to speed the process up.

4. Are we encrypting our cloud data?

Last year, it was estimated that 67 percent of enterprises had a hybrid-cloud strategy. While cloud vendors often provide easy ways  to encrypt data, on-premise servers do not.

If you’re a hybrid-cloud business, your cloud data will likely be encrypted thanks to tools like Microsoft Azure’s Key Vault.  It’s your on-premise data that is your biggest threat.

5. Should we be deploying virtual desktops?

By 2020,  half of the UK workforce will be working remotely. With flexible working becoming the norm in business, it’s important to know that your technology is readily available outside the office. Ask your CIO about how you can deploy virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

VDI let’s your employees load up their ‘virtual office’ from any machine without compromising security. By managing subscriptions from the source, you can maintain data compliance and keep sensitive information off user devices and stored safely in your cloud portal.

6. How can we get the most out of our data?

One of the greatest benefits to cloud deployment is transparent data analysis. Microsoft Azure, for example, has developed easy-to-understand analysis tools like Power BI.

Make sure that your business is getting the most out of the data it’s collecting and understand how to turn insight into action.

7. How quickly can our IT scale?

In times of economic turbulence, scaling up or down quickly is critical to business success. Ask your CIO if your IT is ready to adapt to fast-pace business changes, and vice versa.

Cloud vendors often deploy a pay-what-you-use subscription model that allows you to quickly set up and remove users without paying for more than you need.

Keep ahead of the curve

Business IT is forever changing. Given its correlation to business success today, you need to be deploying IT in the most efficient, adaptive way possible.

With compliance, data security risks and economic turbulence to battle, turn to the cloud and deploy virtual desktops for absolute agility without compromising security.

Reactions from our customers to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are varied. Some are very concerned and taking action. Some are waiting to see what happens. But everyone knows GDPR is something you must pay attention to.

Our message in all cases is simple: whatever your situation is right now, upgrading from Office 365 to Microsoft 365 will make your life a lot easier. You’ll benefit from a solution that’s

• Highly secure
• Regularly and automatically updated to keep it secure
• Has been built with GDPR compliance in mind

The time to upgrade is now

Many organisations are still running with just Office 365 licencing. In these times of increasing regulation and security threats, this is a mistake. Microsoft 365 is a step up that you need to consider because it combines Office 365 with Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) in one complete package. As standard, it includes features that control identity and access, manage mobile devices and safeguard sensitive data. All of these will help you handle GDPR requirements effectively.

There are also several other elements within Microsoft 365 that provide you with an even more complete solution that will simplify GDPR compliance. These include:

• Compliance Manager – a new solution that enables you to conduct a real-time risk assessment. Compliance Manager also gives you a score that helps you understand your compliance performance against all regulatory requirements.
• Microsoft Information Protection solutions – which enables you to identify, classify, protect, label and monitor your sensitive data as you create and store it.
• Advanced Data Governance  – which helps you set retention periods for data in Office 365 to comply with GDPR rules on record keeping.
• Plus Customer Lockbox  – which means you can stay in control of your data at all times, even when a Microsoft engineer may need access to your content to resolve an issue.

All these initiatives are examples of how security and compliance are built into everything that Microsoft does. They also show why Microsoft has become the first enterprise cloud services provider to earn approval for the EU Model Clauses, the first to achieve  ISO’s 27018 cloud privacy standard and the first to offer its customers  contractual commitments to the GDPR.

Do you need to find out more before GDPR comes into force on May 25th?  Contact us and we’ll explain how upgrading to Microsoft 365 will give you all the tools you need.